Droonda and Oddity visit Shimmering Flats. Pick up broken goblin parts. Wonder if goblin engineering is really all it’s cracked up to be. (All the parts would say “Yes” to that question.)

We had gotten a note from some Orc warrior in Orgrimmar to go visit another Orc stationed at the edge of the Shimmering Flats, that vast expanse of salt and crusty beats at the bottom end of Thousand Needles.

There was something up that involved the insects we know as the Silithid. Folks know them early on because a small hive can be found in the barrens south of Camp Taurajo. Our next place to encounter them is in the western end of the Shimmering Flats. There is a large hive area in sands of Tanaris, and yet another below the swampy waters in Un’Goro Crater. Like stepping stones leading to a war, the largest concentration is in Silithus, and what nightmares await us beyond the Gates of Ahn’Qiraj?

But Oddity and Droonda weren’t taking on the armies of the Qiraji. We were going to simply harvest some parts off a few randomly skittering about bugs.

They are curious things. Sometimes you can kill one quite close to a neighbor. Other times you attack one that is all alone and they’ll call for help and you find yourself surrounded by them and running for safety. Being a level 38 Warrior it was not a difficult quest. (There is a follow on quest attained by collecting a bug part.) Oddly, we entered their hive there, with the glowing egg sacks hanging from the cieling, and we dispatched these creatures here one by one. I even mined a few ooze covered mithril veins, so it was more than just bug parts.

We returned to the Orc stationed on the border and concluded our business with him, given, of course, the quest to follow-up elsewhere again.

But the evening was early and the expanse behind us was calling. I thought Droonda might enjoy seeing the Goblin racing track. While there we were given a few quests to accomplish and we set out accomplishing them. Killing Basiliks, killing scorpids, collecting goblin racing machine parts.

Those parts were scattered everywhere. And yet folks trust those Zeppelins?? And yet the other alternative for cross-world travel is boats, and who builds boats? Ever been to the Dead Mines? Right! Goblins. It’s therefore no small wonder that every now and then, when you’re expecting a comfortable flight across the world, you will instead find yourself falling from great heights into the unknown. You may remember the recall so many months ago, when Captain Placeholder was brought in while the boats, and the Zeppelins too I assume, were being worked on.

With all those quests accomplished what was surprising was there was no fights with Alliance. There was something in the local defense channel. Some Night Elf Druid had attacked someone while they were fighting something but the Druid was run off without a death. I later saw the Druid, level 30, and on seeing me and Droonda he immediately changed to cat form and disappeared. We encountered a level 31 Dwarf Hunter in some big water filled blast hole but we’re banking karma so we let him be. I know that someday that Dwarf Hunter will plant as many arrows in our back as he can, and I hope the karma I’ve banked will find him squashed flat, like some Looney Tunes ‘toon, by Sulfuras, The Hand of Ragnaros, wielded by an avenging guildmate. That mace is coming. I see the descending shadow now.

And while we watched the start of one of the races a ?? Night Elf Warrior appeared. She rode around but did not dismount. And then her ward appeared. A level 39 Night Elf Hunter who appeared to be speaking with the same goblins as we were. Walk tall, carry a big stick, and have a level 60 guildmate cover your six. [Recipe: For Success].

After the races we headed back. I continued on to Stonetalon Peak and did a few circuits of the Charred Vale to mine some more mithril and iron.